ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Imran Khan will decide the fate of senior officer of Intelligence Bureau Inam Ghani who in a recent investigation has been declared guilty of his alleged involvement in human smuggling of Afghan nationals.
A recent investigation report of the Federal Investigation Agency has held guilty Ghani of “backing a racket of human smugglers and covering up the crime” during his posting as director FIA Islamabad Zone. Ghani, a grade 20 officer of Police Service of Pakistan, now serves in IB, the civilian intelligence agency, at a senior position.
The report, available with The Nation, has also unearthed involvement of officials of FIA and state-owned Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in human smuggling of Afghan nationals from Islamabad Airport to the United Kingdom. It explains how FIA and PIA staffs were running a network of human smuggling of Afghan nationals and fake Pakistani travel documents had been used for their travelling.
The report concludes that the issue is serious “national security threat in the prevailing circumstances in which Afghan nationals and Taliban are playing havoc in the country.”
Director General FIA Bahir Ahmed Memom has recently dispatched the investigation report to the Secretary Interior and Secretary Establishment Division but Prime Minister Imran Khan himself is the competent authority to decide on it, a senior FIA officer told The Nation. The report recommends departmental action as well as criminal proceedings against the police officer.
The FIA inquiry team headed by its Director Capt (Red) Mohammad Shoaib has thrashed out criminal liability on Inam Ghani in two cases of human smuggling, one was about human smuggling of 20 Afghan nationals and other of 10 Afghan nationals from Islamabad airport to UK.
In the first case regarding FIR No. 238/2014 of FIA AHTC (Anti-Human Trafficking Circle) Islamabad Zone, the investigation report said that Inam Ghani being then Director FIA Islamabad Zone “deliberately did not initiate action on human smuggling incidents of Afghan national which occurred on 20th and 21st September, 2014 wherein 20 Afghan nationals were smuggled from Benazir Bhutto International Airport (BBIAP), Islamabad to Heathrow on forged Pakistani passports and fake visas.” He also conspired in registration of a weak case and mismanagement in investigation, it added.
The inquiry said that two different incidents or occurrences were “maliciously” incorporated in one FIR (first information report) just to “cover up the racket involved in smuggling of Afghan nationals at such a large scale on national flag carrier—PIA, and to safeguard them from different criminal proceedings.”
It said that crucial evidence including “CCTV footage, PIA Manifest, IBMS (Integrated Border Management System) record, CDR links of FIA and PIA officials with human smugglers etc. clearly shows that the smuggling was carried out from BBIAP, in connivance with immigration as well as PIA staff.” The whole incident was covered-up under direct supervision of Mr Ghani, it adds.
“He being Director FIA removed legal barrier (step checking) of flights just to facilitate human smuggling through BBIAP. Without his connivance, it was impossible for the PIA and FIA Immigration staff at airport to have run the human smuggling network of Afghan nationals on fake Pakistani travel documents (passports).”
The report said that Ghani by misusing his official position, kept the BHC (British High Commission) letter pending (addressed to the then Interior Minister Ch Nisar Ali Khan), in which details of Afghan nationals’ smuggling incidents on 14th, 20th & 21st September 2014 were provided. “He took no cognizance with malafide intentions just to protect the racket involved.”
The inquiry said that the police officer closed the department enquiries of all the FIA immigration staff involved in the facilitation of Afghan nationals smuggling on the basis of an enquiry report that lacked crucial evidence. It pointed out that Ghani had directly been posting all the staff responsible for smuggling of Afghan nationals. “Even after the human smuggling incidents and the alleged involvement of Constable Sami Ullah, Head Constable Arshad Maqbool, Constable Faisal Aziz, Sub-Inspector Raja Wajid etc., their postings were made at BBIAP, Islamabad,” the investigation team argued in the report.
It alleged that the police officer has “relations with FIA staff namely Deputy Director Tahir Jan Durrani, Inspector Afzal Niazi, Assistant Director Rana Abid Hussain, and Assistant Director Adnan Khan Lohani etc who had financial / telephonic link with racket of human smuggling.”
The report said that Director FIA falsely reported that no Afghan was smuggled whereas the available evidence clearly shows that the Afghan nationals were smuggled in connivance with FIA Immigration and PIA staff.
In the second case regarding Enquiry no. 41/2018 of AHTC Islamabad Zone, the investigation report said that then director FIA Inam Ghani “maliciously skipped incident of smuggling of 10 Afghan nationals which occurred on 14 September 2014 and which was timely reported by the British High Commission, Islamabad.”
“He deliberately did not initiate any criminal enquiry or conducted probe to thrash out the real facts,” the investigation team said in its findings adding that being senior officer, it was his duty to direct the concerned to immediately secure crucial evidence including CCTV footage and other relevant record but the same was not secured just to cover-up the crime.
The report held that the same racket was involved in the smuggling of Afghan nationals, which was covered up in investigation of case FIR No. 238/2014.